Associate Director, Media Activation

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of Programmatic and YouTube strategies, while supporting integrated Paid Social and broader biddable media initiatives.
• Oversee campaign activation across Programmatic Display, Video, CTV, YouTube, Paid Social, and other emerging digital channels.
• Provide strategic recommendations, performance insights, and proactive optimization opportunities to clients and internal stakeholders.
• Bridge day-to-day activation with broader media planning and strategy to ensure campaigns align with client business objectives.
• Partner with analytics and measurement teams to establish KPIs, evaluate campaign performance, and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Identify testing and innovation opportunities across audience targeting, platform capabilities, automation, and emerging advertising technologies.
• Oversee campaign execution, pacing, optimization, quality assurance, and budget management to ensure operational excellence.
• Provide hands-on guidance and oversight to junior team members, helping troubleshoot campaigns and maintain activation best practices.
• Collaborate with media partners, ad technology platforms, publishers, and internal stakeholders to identify new opportunities and improve campaign performance.
• Develop and implement best practices and processes that improve campaign effectiveness and team productivity.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Analytics, Marketing, Communications, Advertising, or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience in biddable media activation, with a strong background in Programmatic and YouTube advertising.
• Hands-on experience with The Trade Desk (TTD), DV360, and Google Ads/YouTube.
• Experience across additional Paid Social platforms such as Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and X is a plus.
• Strong understanding of programmatic buying, campaign optimization, audience targeting, measurement, and performance reporting.
• Experience balancing hands-on campaign activation with strategic planning and team leadership.
• Significant client-facing experience, including presenting performance insights and strategic recommendations.
• Prior experience managing and mentoring junior team members.
• Agency experience is highly preferred.

Preferred

• Agency experience is highly preferred.
• Experience supporting entertainment, theatrical, or film marketing campaigns is a plus.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across multiple teams and priorities.

Benefits

• We offer a competitive benefits package, go to https://mybenefits.wpp.com/public/welcome for more details.